"Daryl Hall & John Oates Video Collection: 7 Big Ones"

A simple collection of classic music videos from the soulful duo from the eighties.

'You make my dreams come true.' Unless you're an avid eighties music listener, and I know there are many of you who are, the words previous to this sentence isn't likely to ring a bell.

Daryl Hall & John Oates rose to become one of the biggest duos in the eighties. Having expressed my high fanaticism, and reviewed DVDs for, Tears For Fears, these gentlemen have produced timeless music that always clears your mind. Fortunately, this DVD extends those popular hits showing off their music videos.

1. Say It Isn't So
This, along with all the included videos, comes with a title card. The song used to produce this video was the extended version which includes the sax solo near the end. The video must've taken place in New York, despite the video ending with a shot of the World Trade Center (twin towers). That alone is enough to ignite an emotional roller coaster, along with endless yapping from conspiracy theorists, once one witnesses the shot of these towers that stood long before that dreaded day.

2. Family Man
This video takes place inside the house in the living room. You may notice the animation on the corners of the screen featuring a man and woman doing what you'd see in a video game (á la Atari). It also includes the infamous beard-shaving scene with Daryl while singing the second verse in front of the mirror. The guitar solo after the chorus is sung the second time is sweet, performing right in front of the kids, thus resembling "story time."

What's different about this, if you're familiar with the version shown on TV, is this is the extended version of the song/video. Here it features the typical American family—in the eighties—where the husband, wife and all the kids gather together to watch TV and jam to the music. It suddenly transitions to a renewed shot of the family, with their hair re-styled looking more like Daryl Hall's hairstyle (the "Pompadour" which has made a comeback thanks to celebrity music artists such as Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber).

3. Maneater
There's no question that this, likely along with "You Make My Dreams Come True," is what made Hall & Oates as household name. The video starts with a sexy woman walking in high heels, then transitions into the band members in a frozen state. That statue-like scene reminds me a lot of the tourist attraction Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. The sexy woman gets several cameos throughout the song, while including occasional shots of a black panther. Near the end of the song, the vicious black panther walks around the floor and the bands' instruments!

4. Private Eyes
'Tis true: As far as I can remember, this is the very first music video I've watched from Hall & Oates. The cable guy installed a cable box in my bedroom when I was 13 years old, and having discovered the VH1 Classic channel, which aired various classic music videos and live shows from the fifties to the nineties, this was one of the videos that showed up and quickly made me a fan of the duo.

The video is a simple production with the band performing in an all-black stage. During the chorus, the scene would then cut to the band wearing Dick Tracy-like outfits to comply with the song, lyrically. There are shots of the drum playing that don't match along with the music. However, possibly the most bizarre discovery one can find from this video, you will find a pack of Camel cigarettes on Daryl's jacket.

5. Adult Education
If you're a huge fan of the classic movie series Indiana Jones, the setting on this video should make you feel at home. As the song approaches the second verse, an old man sits and calls upon a man and a woman, both almost nude. The translation of this makes the old man as God, and the man and woman as Adam and Eve. I must say, the strangest thing about the man playing God was he was wearing a New York Yankees hat (is God a baseball fan?). Anyway, throughout the song John Oates keeps holding and swinging what looks like the neck of the guitar. Only until later Oates wasn't 'playing' the guitar but holding the guitar neck, with a "blade" attached on it, making it look like a pick-axe. Because of the oh-so provocative lyrics, near the end of the video, you see a hieroglyphic image of a sperm.

6. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Along with "Private Eyes," this is also another simple production shot in all-black background. The only difference is the application of an effect, usually called "Soft Glow." By the way, that's an awesome gold guitar John Oates is jamming on.

7. One On One
The video opens with Daryl lying in bed making a phone call and smokes. It then cuts to Daryl walking around the city while singing the song. Looking at the surroundings, the place seemed to be England with a quick shot of Big Ben in the background before the video cuts to the chorus. The chorus is sung on a stage, with a sparkling curtain in the background, as John joins in to sing his part. The second verse, looking at the background, looked like Daryl sung the verse in Japan. The song ends in the stage where Daryl sings the rest of the song. By the way, this is an excellent song to come home to on a Friday night after work/school. It is a great track.

The menu shows all seven tracks, an audio option and credits option. What's cool is if you hover through all seven tracks, a letter pops up underneath each one, which spells "BIG ONES." The audio option, you can select "Dolby Digital 5.1" or "(Linear) Stereo PCM."

Since the description on the back of the DVD case says these were all their popular hits, it makes me wonder about songs like "You Make My Dreams Come True." Yes, there is an official music video for that song, along with tracks like "Sara Smile," "Method of Modern Love," "Out Of Touch," the ultra rare music video "Jingle Bell Rock" and so much more. They're out there somewhere, but along with Tears For Fears, the complete video library for Hall & Oates aren't all released on DVD in some form or other.

Nevertheless, having seen that Daryl Hall and John Oates still perform their top hits to this day, makes this a great starting DVD for the casual-to-avid fan of the duo. More could've been included for sure, however, this should suit you just enough to enjoy their hits as well as the videos themselves.

Will we get to see the releases of the rest of the Hall & Oates video library? If so, I will be happy to review it here on our website. Please, feel free to contact me.

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he managed a personal blog made back in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming (software development) and video production, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, playing old video/DOS games, digital video archiving, and listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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